Kitselas Five Tier (K5T): Reclaiming Food Sovereignty
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, grocery store shelves in Terrace, B.C. had a lot of bare spots as they struggled to cope with supply chain challenges. It’s no wonder, then, that the members of Kitselas First Nation supported the development of a food sovereignty program by the Nation’s K5T organization.
K5T stands for Kitselas Five Tier. It’s a limited partnership corporation owned by Kitselas First Nation. Executive Director David Hansen describes it as a community-led delivery model for programs and services. The five tiers are considered essential elements for a successful employment program, as identified by community members through a two-year think tank exercise. The tiers are:
- Holistic healing
- Skills for Success
- Work Experience
- Advanced Training
- Job Placement, Opportunities for Advancement and Entrepreneurship
A foundational understanding to the K5T system is that many individual barriers to employment for Indigenous people are due to the intergenerational trauma stemming from long-lasting effects from occurrences like the residential school system and the Sixties Scoop.
This understanding was articulated by the late Elder Alfie McDames, Sr., who also coined two other tenets key to K5T: “Earn while you learn,” and “You don’t drop out — you drop in.”
“We aim to offer a fresh start daily, creating a safe and consistent place where people can self-direct,” says David.
K5T created a day labour program where any community member can work for $18 an hour on community projects. It also established relationships with local employers by setting up apprenticeships and co-op work opportunities. This allows the program to tailor services for unemployed job seekers.
“We find out what [program participants] want to do for work, figure out an employer to match them with, and then [the employer] will take people from our program onto their job site, paid by us for two or more weeks,” explains David. “Participants get hands-on work experience on the job, then the employer gives us feedback about what other skills they may need.”
Participants then meet with one of the K5T case managers to build an action plan to ensure they acquire the skills and any other resources they may need, such as literacy upgrading, computer skills or even personal counselling.
“We try to take the pressure off them,” says David. “When people share their stress, we help them deal with it, whether it’s finding child care or getting their driver’s license.”
This is the model K5T applied to its food sovereignty program, developed with financial support from the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills. David estimates that most of the food in the Terrace region of northwestern B.C. is shipped from over 1,000 kilometers away. When the pandemic interrupted those supply chains, Kitselas members were receptive to exploring the practices of earlier generations — when it was common to grow food in family gardens.
“So, there was not only awareness of food insecurity and the cost of food, but also inspiration to re-connect with this idea of being more self-sufficient,” says David.
The food sovereignty program incorporates everything from the big picture to the practical. Content ranges from discussing food supply chains and the impact of climate change on the food job market to hands-on work building garden boxes and growing vegetables.
“Probably the most practical way we introduced food sovereignty was introducing people to growing their own food by building garden boxes at people’s homes,” explains David. “It created excitement in the community. We invested in a community garden as an educational space to teach about raised garden beds and green housing. We also looked at harvesting and using traditional foods.
“A bunch of those activities took off — so now we’re doing an annual seed saving, an annual traditional food program, and annual garden box and food box programs.”
As for the food sovereignty program participants, some are moving into work in the trades after acquiring interests, skills and confidence from these activities. Others are pursuing career opportunities in fields such as environmental monitoring, land guardianship, anthropology and archeology. Between 2020 and 2021, forty-two participants engaged with the program.
Regardless of what they choose to do, the K5T program is there to support them.
“This is like all of life’s experience in one place — something I never thought I’d see,” says Kitselas Elder Bill Bolton. Bill works for K5T, helping staff its drop-in centre and coordinating the shuttle that transports participants to training programs at their two-acre centre on the banks of the Skeena River. The shuttle will even help transport participants to their work placements, if needed.
“Many people from different walks of life come to us,” explains Bill. “We have people who came from living on the streets who said, ‘I’ve had enough. I want to be better.’ Being in a position to be able to help these people is my dream job. To see the look on their face when their life is starting to change, and they’re starting to get to the position where they want to be is uplifting.”
To learn more about the COVID-relief funding and hear other inspiring stories, check out the Investing in Skills Training news article!
The Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills has invested $15 million to help Indigenous communities manage the economic impacts of COVID-19. The skills training funding goes to Indigenous training partners throughout B.C. to address COVID-19 recovery in the workforce.